Three more beef plants approved for chinese market – ICMSA say ‘must result in better prices for farmers’
THE Chairperson of ICMSA’s Livestock Committee has welcomed today’s announcement that an additional three beef plants have been approved by Chinese authorities for their market, but Des Morrison stressed that unless the opening-up and development of the Chinese market resulted in a speedy and marked improvement in beef price to the farmer producers, that the whole project become irrelevant and no more than a marketing exercise.
Mr Morrison said that farmers were happy to recognise the skill and dedication of Ireland’s negotiators and the energy being brought to the problem of sourc- ing and winning new markets to offset the threat to our traditional British markets, but he noted that too often in the past new markets had been won and opened-up with any benefits accruing seeming to flow exclusively to the exporting factories and no improvement in the prices paid to the people who actually produced the beef.
The ICMSA Livestock Committee Chairperson said that the actual benefit of the work done in opening-up the Chinese market would and should only be judged in light of the positive results it brought to the farmers - not overall trade statistics or marketing reports.